Sponsored link
Saturday, September 6, 2025

Sponsored link

News + PoliticsLaborAnchor Brewing workers vote for union

Anchor Brewing workers vote for union

Contract could set new standards for fast-growing craft-beer industry.

-

The workers at Anchor Brewing voted overwhelmingly to unionize this afternoon, with 36 of the 52 eligible employees casting ballots to join the ILWU.

“It was a totally overwhelming victory,” Brace Belden, one of the union activists, told me.

The workers have been fighting for a union for months, up against Sapporo, a giant brewing operation that now owns Anchor. The company has been fighting back, trying to discourage the union vote – but the outcome is pretty clear.

“There’s nothing they can challenge here,” Belden said.

The next step is electing a negotiating committee (the ILWU is a democratic union) and starting contract talks.

On Friday/15, workers at the Anchor Public Taps – a bar across the street from the old brewery – will also vote on whether to join the union.

“We started this campaign because we were fed up with deteriorating pay, because our benefits  were being slashed, and because many of us were concerned with the direction things were going,” a union statement notes. “But we realized that the real reason we were doing this was because, for the first time in many of our lives, we had a chance to have a voice in our work lives, to have a say in our contract, to have a seat at the table.”

The union vote could have a huge ripple effect in the rapidly growing craft-beer industry. A decade ago, most craft brewers were small, local operations; now, they’re becoming big-time companies. And Anchor – a San Francisco institution – would be the first one to be unionized.

Which means that, assuming management is willing to negotiate in good faith, we can all be proud to drink Anchor beer.

48 Hills welcomes comments in the form of letters to the editor, which you can submit here. We also invite you to join the conversation on our FacebookTwitter, and Instagram

Tim Redmond
Tim Redmond
Tim Redmond has been a political and investigative reporter in San Francisco for more than 30 years. He spent much of that time as executive editor of the Bay Guardian. He is the founder of 48hills.
Sponsored link
Sponsored link

Featured

SF’s most gallant ‘gator celebrates 30 years since his hatch day

... and California Academy of Sciences is giving you an entire month to applaud Claude.

Best of the Bay 2025 Editors’ Pick: Bones Bagels

Connoisseurs of the chewy and circular flock to this Noe Valley bakery's streamlined and seasonal sourdough offerings.

Best of the Bay 2025 Editors’ Pick: Boardroom’s Tequila Trivia Tuesdays

Forget the pop-quiz conglomerates—this North Beach bar and host Oliver 'The Baron' Chang double down on trivial tradition.

More by this author

Rec-Park director knew well in advance of major nonprofit problems—and did nothing

Public records show Phil Ginsburg was aware for more than six months that the Parks Alliance was failing, leaving community groups without their money

Muni riders, bus drivers, bikers, people who walk beg SFMTA Commission to do its job

Panel allows mayor to open mid-Market to Lyft, Uber, Waymo, defying existing policy—and won't even vote on it

Huge labor rally takes on the billionaires

Will that message trickle down into local politics, where oligarchs control City Hall—and the local Democratic Party?
Sponsored link

You might also likeRELATED